Amps that have surprised...good or bad

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Manxmusicman

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Last year I made the move to modelling with an ax8 and for the most part I don’t regret it. In order to get the ax8 I sold a carol Ann od3r on the basis it wasn’t getting used (I now have massive sellers remorse on this one). So I still had a real amp as a backup I got a Bogner atma combo which I was slightly disappointed with but as it was only a back up it would do. However, a prs bent mason came up for grabs so I sold the atma to finance. This left me with just the ax8 which made me nervous so over the last few months I’ve been on a bit of an amp hunt.

I still had some leftover pedals from my old board so really just needed a clean platform but living on an island I couldn’t try beforehand; I had to rely on YouTube and online reviews. Up first was the victory v40. Good online reviews and plenty of demos, plugged it in, nice clean, the went to hit my drive pedal (a keeley super phat which I’ve had for years and sounded great through the carol Ann) and it sounded awful, all the chewyness out of the keeley was gone and replaced with a fizzy mess, same with my d&m drive, in fact none of my overdrives sounded good. I spent ages with different cabs and settings but it had to go.

Next up the Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister deluxe. I really wanted to like this one especially with the DI option which means I could grab it and go and rely on my iems for those crappy gigs were you never know what the back line will be like. I’ve heard the factory tubes are rubbish in these so I ordered a set of new tubes so it had the best chance, strangely it had a similar problem to the victory, lovely chimney clean, I didn’t care for the amps od much, I had pedals for that, but they suffered the same issue. Thin and fizzy and not what I wanted. Playing with the DI out I got a reasonable sound out of some of my pedals but not enough to win me over. Shame as the whole amp is packaged wonderfully well.

I was beginning to think the carol Ann had spoilt me and I was expecting too much but I have today played through a peavey classic 20 head and my pedal tones are back in all of their thick and chewy goodness!! The cheapest amp out of all 3 turns out to be the one I was after. I was pleasantly surprised and the DI out is certainly usable. It doesn’t quite have the top end sparkle of the other two but I can live without that if I means my pedals sound how I want them to. Lesson learned in matching amps/cabs/pedals.

Has anyone bought amps that have surprised them, one way or the other?
 
I've had a few. But the one that surprised me the most was a JVM 205h. I have gone through a bunch of amps and love many (several Diezel, several Bogners, and others) and one day I picked up a used JVM205 pretty cheap. It blew me away. I can't say every channel and setting is good, but I dialed in pure gain bliss with my pedalboard. Total surprise, I play it more than my others. Although admittedly I play my AxeIII more than anything these last few months.
 
Good - Mesa MkIV and Marshall 6100LM
Bad - Splawn QuickRod

The good ones were just insane values for the money when you consider tone and features. The QR might have had issues. It came with KT77, I tried EL34s and just couldn't gel with it. Harsh on top, boomy on bottom, weird mids.
 
Good - Randall RG100ES, Dokken Tooth and Nail in a box, great amp for the (short ) money.
Also good - Marshall DSL, thought I'd hate them but they're actually pretty damn good.
Bad - Splawn QR, Flat, lifeless. Full of cold solder joints, arcing half power switch. Not for me.
 
good- Bugera 1960 $229 shipped stupid deal of the day MF 5years ago NOS tubes from beginning still works flawless on 10 its whole life.
bad- One of the first 20 ubershalls fuckn hated that amp channels bled gain was on 10 when it was 3 on the dial returned in 2 days
 
Peters Gryphon - had no idea what to expect and it was an absolute ball-tearer. Just a great, great amp.
 
Manxmusicman":2vz38ypw said:
...today played through a peavey classic 20 head and my pedal tones are back in all of their thick and chewy goodness!!
Click to expand...

I had a similar situation where I had to fill in for another guitar player last minute and plugged a Vox ToneLab into a Peavey Classic 30. Turned the post up, and kept the pre low to get a solid clean platform and then hammered the front end with the ToneLab. Sounded really good and just like you described. Thick and chewy.
 
2001 UL---Was expecting Ultra tight, dry, unforgiving, revealing, open & organic gain structure...we all know the terms thrown around regarding this amp. I was shocked when I got this one and it turned out to be one of the most saturated/compressed/play itself amps I've owned. Cool for sure and not saying it was a bad amp, just the opposite of what I was looking for in terms of feel. Sounded pretty inorganic, processed, very hifi maybe. I actually like the 50CL better and sold the UL.

2019 QR---every bit as good, or better, than the 2013 I regretted selling. Swapped out a couple 12AX7s for 5751 & 12AT7WC and it's on par with the Wizard MCII in terms of raw crunch, feel, response, articulation, musicality and quality of tone.
 
Good:
Peavey Classic 30
Marshall JCM900 4501 - loved this amp
Lee Jackson XLS-500 - awesome amp TBH. Didn't have issues with it but sold it to buy the JCM800 4210 listed in the Bad section.
Fender M80 Head - Did its job and crushed as necessary. Great first "big" amp for jamming with friends in middle school.
Ceriatone 18W TMB. Screamed when cranked.
Fender Blues Jr. - That thing screamed with a SD-1 up front. Diet 2204, but really benefited from going through an external cabinet.

Bad:
Mako Mak4 - the Dorado channel noise rendered it unusable for me. I did hear from Andrew on how to resolve it but decided I didn't want to mess with it so just sold it.
Mesa Boogie Roadster
Mesa Boogie Maverick
Marshall 2203 (1977) - I just think maybe I didn't have a good one.
Marshall 4210 (1983) - I've heard they got better in the mid-late '80's.
Carvin X100B - really wanted to like this amp, and it did have potential (sounded GREAT on the clean channel with a Metal Zone just boosting it into a roar). I had the EL34 version.
Fryette Ultra Lead (2011) - coming from a Pittbull Classic, I expected this to be the ultimate amp for me that would end my GAS. It wasn't. In retrospect, I just don't think I had the right cabinet for this amp. I've loved my old Pittbull Classic, and now love my CLX.
 
Good amps....every amp I own

Bad amps...every amp I sold
 
Good: Rev G Triple rec. Always been a Marshall guy, and all the Mesa amps I'd tried were either Mk4's or 5's, or later 3 channel recto's or multi-watts. All were OK, nothing special. Then I traded a 1992 5150 block letter for an early rev G Triple.
I thought I'd take a chance and see if all the talk about the Rev G's and earlier recto's was legit, or if I just don't like Mesa amps. Well....the rev G Triple is fukking GREAT! Surprisingly fukking great! Fantastic amp. :rock:
Really glad I took the plunge. Night and day with any other Mesa I've played.

Bad: Suhr amps. I've had an SL68, an OD100SE and a PT100. They all sounded lack-luster, but the biggest issue was the feel. Just horrible on all 3 amps. Totally lifeless with no bounce, no punch, and a mushy attack. No idea why. :confused:
All 3 were working perfectly with new glass, and they are all built with high quality parts. I just don't get it. :dunno:
Having said that, the SE100 clone I built from a schematic of the 3+SE pre-amp is one of my all time fave amps. It just rips!
 
My Best surprise is a cheap ass Bugera T50 head I bought two years ago as an open box deal, for a little over 2 bills...I needed a 'disposable' head to carry back and forth to band practice. The clean channel on this thing sounded so good out of the box, I took a chance and replaced the entire tube set with JJ's...difference was remarkable, and not a mistake made with either of these actions. The cleans and reverb sparkle on this thing, and sometimes I play it just to piss off somebody I know. (I will admit that the gain channel on the Bugera is absolute garbage, but who needs it anyway.)

Pleasant surprises are my two most recent purchases..'65 Bandmaster and '71 Bassman 50, unmodded..I expected these to sound great, but what amazes me is how quiet they are..you can hear a flea fart when these things are idling...BtW, noise is the EXACT reason I have generally steered away from 'Vintage' amps over the years, but what the hell do I know...these things sell pretty reasonable too

I have always been a casual player way more than a Gear Hound..From what I can gather, I favor much less gain than most on this board do..I have stuck almost exclusively with Fender amps over my many decades, so not much other experience to offer except for the Ampeg V4 I used to have..

The only amp that really disappointed was my brief experiment with a '65 DRRI (Thanks TGP)....If I want an amp that sounds almost as good a Hot Rod deluxe, I'll go ahead and plug up my Hot Rod deluxe...and enjoy the headroom without the 'hiss'
 
fusedbrain":1iowufw5 said:
Good: Rev G Triple rec. Always been a Marshall guy, and all the Mesa amps I'd tried were either Mk4's or 5's, or later 3 channel recto's or multi-watts. All were OK, nothing special. Then I traded a 1992 5150 block letter for an early rev G Triple.
I thought I'd take a chance and see if all the talk about the Rev G's and earlier recto's was legit, or if I just don't like Mesa amps. Well....the rev G Triple is fukking GREAT! Surprisingly fukking great! Fantastic amp. :rock:
Really glad I took the plunge. Night and day with any other Mesa I've played.

Bad: Suhr amps. I've had an SL68, an OD100SE and a PT100. They all sounded lack-luster, but the biggest issue was the feel. Just horrible on all 3 amps. Totally lifeless with no bounce, no punch, and a mushy attack. No idea why. :confused:
All 3 were working perfectly with new glass, and they are all built with high quality parts. I just don't get it. :dunno:
Having said that, the SE100 clone I built from a schematic of the 3+SE pre-amp is one of my all time fave amps. It just rips!
Click to expand...

Agree on the Suhr's. John is one of the nicest people I've ever spoken to, but I do not like the sound of his amps nor the goofy look of his Modern series guitars. I do like his pickups and pedals
 
Fender Prosonic was good. Nice surprise. I liked the Blues Jr too.

Other amps that I've tried that I liked but expected not to like based on forum cred: Crate Shockwave, Dime D100, Bugera V22, Peavey Valveking (after some upgrades), Marshall TSL 60 combo.
 
When my modded VK 50 was working, it was pretty solid. I got a dead 220V combo for $20 and $20-30 later in parts I was rocking. BUT not sure since I blew the fuses in the head and the step up transformer what went wrong. Lol. Got board and have not revisited it in a while.

Honestly my big happy surprise was the Ktre. I thought I was going to like it... BUT I LOVE It. All I have into it was $300 ish being that I traded a guitar and a pedal I built for it. The guitar was a Indo Soloist I snagged for $250 (was a nice guitar, but I couldn't live with it being Indo) and the parts for the pedal. The amp slays loaded with used NOS preamp tubes in it.

The other big love affair is the Rivera K100. bought for $600 shipped, I just love it.

Not thrilled with the H&K Tubemeister 18. Hated it. Sold it used two weeks later and pocketed $50. It was flat out terrible.
 
My Verellen Skyhammer has blown me away. It's articulation, and the tightness of it's gain structure wow me every time I play it.
 
The ENGL Straight shocked me with how good it is. Nobody really plays it much anymore, and a lot of the tones you hear from it on record are solid but not mind-blowing. I got my hands on one, and it's brilliant! With a TS in front it's a metal machine. It's one of those amps that makes any guitar or mic position sound good through it. I have yet to find a combo that makes it sound bad. And as a dude who mid-scoops, it sounds alright with the mids scooped but even better with the mids around noon. It really is a monster amp.
 
BeZo":4uuem48s said:
My Verellen Skyhammer has blown me away. It's articulation, and the tightness of it's gain structure wow me every time I play it.
Click to expand...
I was just snooping around Skyhammer clips on YT. Heard a few that sounded amazing. Very intriguing amp.
 
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